The Importance of Family

I know I’ve been MIA since Wednesday night. 

Right after I wrote my post about Sushi, I got some sad news.  My grandmother, Memama, had just passed away. 

I’m still waiting for the news to really sink in.  It’s so hard when someone who has been a part of your life for so long is suddenly gone.  My Memama was such a special lady, and over the weekend, my family has been reliving many of our memories of her together.  We will miss her so much.  I plan to do a post on some of my favorite memories, but I’m not quite ready to write that post yet.

It seems like food is a part of every family gathering, and this is no exception.  Last night, Adrienne and I decided we would make “Easy Beefy Cheesy Enchilada Casserole.  We felt like it would be good comfort food.  And it was.  But we would like for you to know that this recipe IS beefy and cheesy.  It is NOT easy. 

This recipe was not really difficult… it just had a million steps and was sort of tedious.  There was a lot of prep work.  It ended up taking the entire family to get this thing together! 

Poppy helped by holding the dishes as we dipped tortillas in red sauce to layer over the beef.  Leenie helped us by shredding cheese.  Meredith helped us by calling out directions and stepping in when we needed an extra pair of hands.  It ended up tasting great, and we think the casseroles were a success because everyone went back for seconds.  But next time we will use prepared enchilada sauce and save some work!  And maybe buy already-shredded bags of cheese.

Then we relived some memories by watching my wedding and Meredith’s wedding on DVD.  It’s always fun to go back and watch family videos.  It’s so nice to be with family right now and enjoy laughter, meals, and memories together. 

Thanks to all of you who have sent such nice comments and emails to me.  It helps to know so many of you are thinking about us.